Supreme Magus novel Chapter 3946

Chapter 3946: Swirling Wind (Part 1)

"Sot!" Thanks to Zoreth’s unwitting suggestion, Elysia now used the term to refer to both her godmother and the swear word. "Sot! Sot!"

"No, Zoreth! Just Zoreth. Please, Ely. I beg of you!" The Shadow Dragon said, her eyes wet with tears of regret.

"Sot!" Elysia giggled.

"Shot?" Valeron the Second tilted his head in confusion. "Auntie Shot?"

"No, Little Brother. Just no. Call me Zor, please." Zoreth wanted to cry, but she didn’t want to scare the children.

"Congratulations, you played yourself." Leegaain scoffed. "If not for my preemptive intervention, you would be crushed by both your guilt and my fist. No teaching mean words to Hatchlings, young lady."

"Yes, Father." Zoreth lowered her head and whimpered.

"Do you mind if we begin? I have things to do." Morok snorted. "Fix your mess on your own time."

"Sure." Zoreth replied. "Is Lady Yaga here or..."

"I’m here, child." The Red Mother walked up to the Shadow Dragon. "Still no progress?"

"I’ve learned how to spot the energy from my Arke form, but I can’t connect with it. I tried long and hard, but nothing."

"You must not see with your Body Sculpting spell, child, you must listen." The Red Mother replied. "There is no connection to form because there already is one. The humanoid aspect is a part of you, and you just need to communicate with it like you do with the rest of your body.

"You don’t connect with your fingers, you just tell them to move. And when they touch something, you don’t question them, you listen to them. Now, show me what you got."

Baba Yaga used her breathing technique, Sun and Moon, on Zoreth while the Shadow Dragon tried her best to call upon her Arke form. Zoreth could spot the threads of her human aspect and feel its energy, but she couldn’t hear its melody.

It was akin to attempting to play a woodwind instrument without bringing it to the mouth.

"It’s a good start." It was the best Baba Yaga could say without lying. "I don’t think you are a Healer talented enough to listen to the melody of someone else’s life force, but you should still manage to perceive your own.

"Keep practicing Body Sculpting and spend as much time as you can in your Arke form. Are you ready?"

"One moment." Zoreth closed her eyes and wished her Dragon Eyes worked with the Scanner spell as well. "I’m ready."

"On my mark. One, two, three, mark!" The Red Mother exerted a delicate pressure on the human threads and, for a moment, the Shadow Dragon felt like someone had plucked a string inside of her.

Zoreth’s body shapeshifted seamlessly, leaving a fading echo in her mind.

"Lith. Tista. If you please." Ryla said, and the siblings shapeshifted into their Indech form. "Perfect! Now we can start our lesson."

Lith didn’t miss how Ryla’s voice became more high-pitched, nor how she looked at him after the transformation.

"Have you been practicing with your wings?"

"Yes." Morok, Garrik, and the two Indechs said. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"I don’t have wings, but I practiced hard with my arms." Zoreth replied.

"That’s more than enough, and don’t worry. I thought of a solution." Ryla nodded. "Since you are closer to a Balor than a Fomor, I asked Urhen to join us."

"Hi. Nice to see everyone again." Urhen stood up and gave the class a small bow before turning to Lith. "I’m glad to see that you are alright, Zoreth."

"I’m Lith. She’s Zoreth." He pointed at the Balor-troll hybrid.

Her students tried and failed to conjure so much as a drop of water.

"Listen carefully." Ryla nodded. "I want you to absorb the world energy with your wings again, but be ready to stop as soon as it hurts."

"You mean it will hurt, Mom?" Garrik asked.

"Yes, dear." She replied. "That’s why you mustn’t push yourself too hard. Just take as little world energy as you can."

"This sounds like a job for me." Tista unfurled her wings and felt a jolt running down her spine. "Careful, guys. It’s no joke."

Garrik followed the instructions to the letter, experiencing a small sting. Lith, Zoreth, and Morok, instead, fell on all fours from the pain before they managed to stop.

"Talent hurts." Morok smiled at his little brother. "So bad."

"This makes no sense. I’m even worse than Tista at absorbing energy." Zoreth said in disbelief.

"Thanks for the kind remark." Tista snorted.

"I meant, why does it hurt me so much?" The Arke raised her hands in apology.

"Because like Lith and Morok, you are used to giving your all." Ryla replied. "Since your current skill is limited, you have gotten accustomed to opening yourself completely to the world energy.

"Right now, there is no water element around us, so if you let the unbalanced world energy in, it will drain the water element you naturally possess in the attempt to fill the vacuum. The pain you experience is your body resisting the pull."

"What about Garrik and Tista?" Zoreth felt the ache in her limbs subside, but her blue forearm and eye kept throbbing.